August 24 , 2008

Written September 7

Dear Friends and Families,

One of the good parts about the "ex-patriot" life is welcoming new people into our new homeland. One of the bad parts is seeing everyone leave. Today we sponsored a despedida* for Laura and Dan, who will be leaving at the end of September and for Bob, who will be leaving even sooner. They have been her three and four years respectively and we will miss having them around. Laura had become one of Marianne's best friends and Bob kept the ex-pat community at work organized, to the degree such a thing was possible.

Who was there:

* despedida is a Brazilian work for a going away party